The University of Oxford has announced a $10 million gift from the Los Angeles-based Kavli Foundation to establish a nanoscience research institute.

To be housed in a new building at the center of the university's Science Area site, the Kavli Institute for NanoScience Discovery (Kavli INSD) will offer a unique combination of structural biology with cutting-edge biochemistry, pathology, chemistry, physics, physiology, and engineering. Led by Carol Robinson, a highly decorated chemist known for her work in using mass spectrometry to elucidate the 3D structures of proteins, the center — the twentieth Kavli Institute globally and the fifth focused on nanoscience — will house more than forty faculty and four hundred students, postdocs, and research staff when it open its doors in January 2021.

"The Kavli Foundation is honored to have a major research institute at the historic University of Oxford," said the foundation’s president and CEO, Robert W. Conn. "The foundation has a unique model of endowing research institutes — we transfer wealth to a university's endowment where they then receive an annual payout for unrestricted use in scientific research. We also enter into a long-term partnership, sharing a deep commitment to basic science and advancing science for the benefit of humanity. Oxford presented a cohesive and comprehensive scientific vision paired with a substantial university commitment and excellent scientific leadership. We welcome Oxford and the Kavli Institute for NanoScience Discovery to the Kavli Institute family."